Fold-away cover for dental drinking cup support

ABSTRACT

A housing construction for supporting and concealing adjacent to a dental chair a drinking cup above a housing drain opening. A folding door closes the housing access opening. The door has upper and lower cover sections or panels hinged on a horizontal axis at the middle of the door. The upper panel section is pivotally hung on the housing at the top of the access opening so that the panel sections may be folded together and swung into the housing to permit access to the drinking cup. Releasable magnet means hold the panels in folded, as well as in swung cup-exposing positions, when the door is open.

United States Patent [151 3,684,341 Buchtel et al. [451 Aug. 15, 1972 [54] FOLD-AWAY COVER FOR DENTAL 3,562,850 2/1971 Eliason et al. ..292/251.5 DRINKING CUP SUPPORT FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [72] Inventors: Dean II. Buchtel; John A. Maurer,

both f Canton, Ohio 956,966 4/1964 Great Bntam ..3 12/3 24 [73] Assignee: The Weber Dental Manufacturing primary Examiner pau] Gilliam Company Canton ohlo Attorney-Frease & Bishop [22] Filed: Sept. 8, 1970 S7 ABS CT [21] Appl. No.: 70,428 1 ,A housing construction for supporting and concealing adjacent to a dental chair a drinking cup above a housing drain opening. A folding door closes the hous- [58] Fieid oyearch 312/138 35 327 298 mg access opening. The door has upper and lower 1 60 i 1 51 cover sections or panels hinged on a horizontal axis at the middle of the door. The upper panel section is pivotally hung on the housing at the top of the access [56] Rem-mm cued opening so that the panel sections may be folded UNITED STATES PATENTS together and swung into the housing to permit access to the drmkmg cup. Releasable magnet means hold 3 i the panels in folded, as well as in swung cup-exposing 3041'957 7/l962 zy 312,209 x positions, when the door 18 open. 3,352,227 11/1967 Litman ....292/25l.5 X 4 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures FOLD-AWAY COVER FOR DENTAL DRINKING CUP SUPPORT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to drinking cup facilities for a patient in a dentists or doctors office; and more particularly to a housing construction which conceals a patients drinking cup when not in use but which may be opened easily by a patient, dentist, or dentists assistant so that the drinking cup may be used by the patient or importance from the standpoint of appearance as well as cleanliness.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Objectives of the invention include providing an enclosed drinking cup support and housing for dental office equipment and the like; providing a simplified foldaway door construction for a dental drinking cup enclosure, compartment, or housing; providing a door for a dental drinking cup compartment which may be moved readily between, maintained at, and released from open and closed positions by the simplest of operations; providing a folding door construction for a dental drinking cup compartment which may be maintained in folded and also in open positions without the provision or use or operation of mechanical latches; and providing a new fold-away door construction for a compartment of a dental unit and the like which eliminates difficulties heretofore encountered, achieves the indicated objectives simply, effectively and inexpensively, and satisfies existing needs in the art.

These objectives and advantages are obtained by the construction, the general nature of which may be stated as including a housing formed by housing walls including a rear wall; the housing forming a drinking cup compartment open at the front; a fold-away door clos ing the housing open front including an upper panel and a lower panel; a hinged connection between the lower end of the upper door panel and the upper end of the lower door panel; means pivotally mounting the upper end of the upper door panel at the upper end of the housing for swinging movement into and out of the compartment; magnet means releasably holding the panels in folded position when the lower panel is folded upwardly rearwardly with respect to the upper panel; and magnet means mounted on the rear housing wall adapted to releasably hold the folded panels in open position when swung rearwardly on said pivotal mounting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a dental unit or cabinet in which the improved drinking cup housing construction is incorporated;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the improved drinking cup housing removed from the cabinet of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front elevation of the housing shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. -4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but showing the fold-away door in open position;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view looking in the direction of the arrows 5-5, FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 showing the foldaway door in full lines in folded position, in dot-dash lines at the start of the folding operation, and in dashdouble-dot lines in open position;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary view similar to a portion of FIG. 6 showing a fold-away door in fully open position taken on line 7-7, FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary view looking in the direction of the arrows 8-8, FIG. 5; and

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary view taken on the line 9-9, FIG. 5. I

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention is shown typically in the drawings incorporated in a diagrammatically illustrated dental cabinet or unit 1. The cabinet 1 may have any desired size, may house other dental office appliances or accessories, may be mounted on a wall or onthe floor, and may have suitable plumbing connections for a supply at least of water, either hot or cold or both, and drain or waste facilities. Cabinet 1 is located conveniently to a dental chair within easy reach of a patient resting, sitting, or reclining on the chair.

In accordance with the invention, a drinking cup compartment or housing generally indicated at 2 is provided at any desired location in cabinet 1. Housing 2 is illustrated detached from cabinet 1 in FIGS. 2 to 7.

Housing 2 may comprise side walls 3, a rear wall 4, and

bottom member 5 adapted to support a drinking cup 6. The bottom member 5 (FIG. 5) may have any suitable grill or formation to support cup 6 and providing fluid drainage to drain outlet 7 connected with any suitable drain or waste hose 8 which in turn may be connected to a plumbing waste pipe. A spout 9 may extend through the housing rear wall 4 to supply either hot or cold or a mixture of hot and cold water to the drinking cup 6.

Rear housing wall 4 terminates in an inwardly angularly directed flange 10 at its upper end. Flange 10 is located somewhat below the upper end 1 l of side walls 3. A rectangular permanent magnet assembly 12 is mounted on flange 10 extending laterally thereof with its attracting armature 13 presented adjacent the inner face 14 of flange 10.

The front (left-hand side of FIGS. 5 and 6) of housing 2 is normally closed by a fold-away door generally indicated at 15. Door 15 comprises an upper cover section or panel 16 and a lower cover section or panel 17. Panel 16 is formed with a lower L-shaped flange l8,

and an upper L-shaped flange 19; while panel 17 has an upper Ltshaped flange 20. Flanges 18, 19, and 20, as shown, extend laterally crosswise at the respective ends of panels 16 and 17, and flanges l8 and 20 are joined by a hinge generally indicated at 21. Upper panel 16 also preferably has a handle 22 for manipulating the fold-away door 15.

A pivot rod or shaft 23 extends between the upper front comers of side walls 3 and may be mounted thereon by screws 24 (FIG. 9). Pivot blocks 25 are located at the top corners of upper panel 16 (FIGS. 2 and 3) within the channel formed by L-shaped flange l9. Blocks 25 are journaled on pivot rod 23 (FIG. 9) for pivotal or swinging movement of upper panel l6on rod 23. A Z-shaped bracket 26 is located at the inner top edge of upper panel 16 and is connected thereto by screws 27 threaded into blocks 25 and through L- flange 19 to assemble and maintain assembled the blocks 25 and bracket 26 on panel 16. A rectangular permanent magnet assembly 28 similar to magnet 12 is mounted on bracket 26 with its rectangular attracting armature face 29 facing rearwardly from bracket 26.

The fold-away door 15 is normally closed as shown in H68. 1, 3, and to conceal and cover a drinking cup 6 in the housing 2. Handle 22 may be grasped and pulled outwardly and upwardly in the direction of the arrow 30 (FIG. 6) when it is desired to open the compartment to gain access to the drinking cup 6. The upper cover panel 16 is swung upwardly as far as necessary to permit the lower cover panel 17 to be folded back in the directionof the arrow 31 on hinged connection 21 to the position shown in full lines in FIG. 6.

The lower end 32 of cover panel 17 now is at the upper end of the assembly attracted to and held in contact with the armature 29 of magnet 28. Cover panels 16 and 17 are formed of metal so that magnetic attraction holds the cover panels in folded position as shown. After the folding operation, the folded panels may be moved in the direction of the arrow 33 (FIG. 6) until the cover panel 17 contacts armature 13 of magnet 12 where it is held in the open positionillustrated in HQ 7. e

The described operations for manipulating the foldaway door may be performed readily by .the patient, dentist, or dental assistant to enable the patient to use the drinking cup 6 when necessary.

The drinking cup 6 may be sterilized after use in the usual manner. If the cup is disposable, the drinking cup 6 will be disposed of and replaced by a new cup 6. The door 15 may be pulled away from magnet 12 by pulling on handle 22 and then unfolded to return it to the closed position illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 5 concealing or covering a cup 6 located in the housing, or concealing the interior of the housing if no cup is stored therein.

The new drinking-cup compartment or housing con struction in the interior of which the cup support and plumbing fixtures normally are concealed,-present an attractive appearance; and the fold-away door is very simple to manufacture, assemble, and manipulate. Accordingly, the improved construction'achieves the objectives and solves problems existing in the art.

In the foregoing description, certain terms have been used for brevity, clearness and understanding; but no terms are used for descriptive purposes and are intended to be broadly construed.

Moreover, the description and illustration of the invention is by way of example, and the scope of the in-' vention is not limited to the exact details shown or described since the features of the invention may be applied to a construction for various uses. For example, rather than being used in the dentists office as a part of dental equipment, the construction may be used in a doctors ofiice, or any other place where a concealed or enclosed drinking cup or similar article is desired to be stored and concealed but readily accessible.

Having now described the features, discoveries and principles of the invention, the manner in which the improved construction is' made, the'characteristics of the new construction, and the advantageous, new and useful results obtained; the new andv useful structures, devices, elements, arrangements, parts, combinations, and subcombinations are set forth in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. in drinking cup housing construction, a housing formed by housing walls including a rear wall; the housing having an upper end and forming a drinking cup compartment open at the front; fold-away door means closing the open front including upper and lower panel means each having upper and lower ends; hinge means connecting the lower end of the upper panel means and the upper end of the lower panel means for swinging the lower panel means on the upper panel means rearwardly upwardiy to a folded position behind the upper panel means; means pivotally mounting the upper end of the upper panel means on the upper end of the housing for swinging the upper panel means and folded lower panel means rearwardly upwardly into the compartment; first magnet means mounted on and extending rearwardly of theupper panel means adjacent the pivotal mounting into the compartment to releasably engage and hold the lower panel means in folded position; and second magnet means mounted on the housing rear wall within the compartment and spacedbelow the upper end of the housing to releasably engage and hold the folded lower panel means when the upper and lower panel means are swung rearwardly upwardly into said compartment on said pivotal mounting, thereby opening the compartment to access.

2. The construction defined in claim 1 in which the housing includes side walls having top front corners defining the upper end of the open front; in which the pivotal mounting includes a pivot rod mounted on and extending between said corners; and in which the upper panel means has blocks journaled on said pivot rod.

3. The construction defined in claim 2 in which the first magnet means includes a bracket, and in which the bracket is mounted on said blocks.

4. The construction defined in claim 1 in which the rear housing wall has an angular flange at its upper end spaced below the upper end of the housing; and in which the second magnet means is mounted on said flange. 

1. In drinking cup housing construction, a housing formed by housing walls including a rear wall; the housing having an upper end and forming a drinking cup compartment open at the front; fold-away door means closing the open front including upper and lower panel means each having upper and lower ends; hinge means connecting the lower end of the upper panel means and the upper end of the lower panel means for swinging the lower Panel means on the upper panel means rearwardly upwardly to a folded position behind the upper panel means; means pivotally mounting the upper end of the upper panel means on the upper end of the housing for swinging the upper panel means and folded lower panel means rearwardly upwardly into the compartment; first magnet means mounted on and extending rearwardly of the upper panel means adjacent the pivotal mounting into the compartment to releasably engage and hold the lower panel means in folded position; and second magnet means mounted on the housing rear wall within the compartment and spaced below the upper end of the housing to releasably engage and hold the folded lower panel means when the upper and lower panel means are swung rearwardly upwardly into said compartment on said pivotal mounting, thereby opening the compartment to access.
 2. The construction defined in claim 1 in which the housing includes side walls having top front corners defining the upper end of the open front; in which the pivotal mounting includes a pivot rod mounted on and extending between said corners; and in which the upper panel means has blocks journaled on said pivot rod.
 3. The construction defined in claim 2 in which the first magnet means includes a bracket, and in which the bracket is mounted on said blocks.
 4. The construction defined in claim 1 in which the rear housing wall has an angular flange at its upper end spaced below the upper end of the housing; and in which the second magnet means is mounted on said flange. 